Cal Coons Showrunner, Director and Writer
By Jay Cooper Contributor / Musican
Cal’s successes in Television include Murdoch Mysteries, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Blue Murder, The Listener and The Good Witch, just to name a few.
Born in Peterborough and raised just outside Buckhorn on Sandy Lake, Cal splits his time between here and Toronto. What does Cal like about the Kawarthas? ‘I like the way of life and to be rooted here. I like the lakes, of course and nature, but I’m still close enough to Toronto to do business there as well. Media wise, Toronto is all about itself but you come down the 115 and there’s a real sense of community here. I love that there is a lot of interesting artists here, whether it’s musicians, painters, writers or actors.’
On the set of Murdoch Mysteries
His interest in the entertainment industry didn’t start until high school. He says, ‘It’s sort of a weird story. (laughs) I really didn’t know what I wanted to do until high school. I got injured and couldn’t do any sports, so my mother told me I should play guitar. I fell in love with it and played in bands at the time. When it came time to decide what I would
take after high school, I was interested in radio and thought maybe I would like to be in that business, so I went to Niagara College. It was a very commercial based program and not the kind of thing I wanted to do. But a part of the program was Film Studies. We watched foreign movies as part of the class and it was an epiphany. I had never seen anything outside of regular television and it was amazing. I started shooting shorts films for the class and editing them and when they played them on the wall I was like, WOW, I’m hooked.’ I asked Cal about the different roles to makes a TV show. Cal clarified, ‘A writer writes the screenplay and a Director oversees the activity on the stage, on the floor picking the camera angles, make the decisions of what goes in front of the camera and oversees the performances. There are many kinds of Producers. Some just raise money, some handle logistics, some do distribution with titles like Page 46
